Cornamuse
The cornamuse is a woodwind instrument with a double reed , a cylindrically drilled tube and a wind cap . The lower end of the tube is closed with a lid that has side air outlet holes. On some models, the lid can be removed. The sound of the cornamuse is similar to that of the krummhorn , but is quieter and more delicate. If the lid is removed, the sound is louder and stronger compared to the Krummhorn. The cornamuse has seven front finger holes and one thumb hole for the left thumb. The range is a major ninth. In the modern cornamuse, the range is extended upwards by two keys and then amounts to one decime.
There are the voices soprano, alto, tenor, bass and great bass. Smaller and larger instruments were built on a trial basis, but could not prevail. As with most Renaissance woodwind instruments, the c / f tuning is common:
| Pitch | Pitch range (modern cornamuse in brackets) |
| soprano | c 1 d 1 - d 2 (- f 2 ) |
| Old | f 0 g 0 - f 1 (- b 1 ) |
| tenor | c 0 d 0 - d 1 (- f 1 ) |
| bass | F G - f 0 (- b 0 ) |
| Great bass | C D - d 0 (- f 0 ) |
Cornamuses can be played chromatically with the exception of the small seconds to the lowest note using forked handles.
The cornamuse was developed in Europe in the 15th century and is derived from a medieval instrument with a straight tube. The instrument was widely used in the 16th century. With the musical transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque in the 17th century, it fell out of fashion. Cornamuses have been made and played again since the middle of the 20th century. In addition to playing music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the cornamuse is also occasionally used for folk and modern music. In the middle of the 20th century, a subbasscornamuse (lowest note C 1 ) was built and successfully used by a Renaissance ensemble .
The name cornamuse is sometimes confused with the similar French name cornemuse and is also related to musette . Both generally mean “ bagpipe ” and go back to the Latin musa . Corna is related to old French corne , "horn" (as a wind instrument or animal horn).
Web links
- Hermann Moeck: On the history of Krummhorn and Cornamuse (PDF file, 292 kB)